Digital Art

Week 20

Block Intro - Initialising Ideas:

This session marked the beginning of our third project, in which we are asked to design an original character under the theme of a traditional superhero; our primary aims are to promote our creative abilities in character design, showing an effective understanding of anatomy, improving our rendering capabilities and creating a narrative within limitations delivered in a brief to prepare us for projects we'd work on in the industry. With the traditional superhero/villain guidelines, we have limitations we must stick to such as no high fantasy concepts, no overly animalistic designs lacking anthropomorphic features to show our knowledge of anatomy, no capes which would affect the silhouette, and nothing too ambitious or straying too far from the concept.

In the session itself, we started initialising our ideas through mood boards and mind maps; I had a few concepts in mind already but felt unsure of how they'd translate to the superhero concept. My tutor advised me to consider the powers themselves first, rather than the overall concept and design, building a new design around the chosen power. Therefore, I began this session by creating a mind map to brainstorm potential powers for my character to choose from and build around.

Considering elemental powers was a guaranteed success in idea variation, already holding a strong concept in games such as Pokémon and Skylanders, proving these powers to work already. I looked into animalistic designs that'd feature creature components without compromising the human anatomy to play into my artistic preferences, along with a few standalone concepts.

With this mood board completed, I settled on a light power concept after discussion with my tutor. It would feature the premise of manipulating light or drawing its energy to repurpose as weaponry, or using the light itself with refraction to create rainbow projections and beams. Light itself is often associated with rather benevolent forces, such as its religious connotations with heaven, and the comparison of light and dark representing good and evil. Therefore, I know this concept could be strong within the project's limits for a superhero shining light to guide citizens.

We also discussed the additional idea of manipulating sunlight onto a magnifying glass attached to their suit, or as a prop/weapon, to redirect light and burn enemies. I liked this idea, adding fire to the concept and allowing the introduction of warmer colours, but I was unsure of how to fit a magnifying glass into this concept, until I conjured up the concept of the magnifying glass being placed within a shield's centre, used defensively to block attacks and offensively to send their own, simultaneously. The shield being defensive and offensive is certainly strong without many cons, therefore a drawback could be that these powers only strongly function in daylight, rendering them weaker overnight - the inclusion of flaws adds plausibility to this concept and strengthens the overall idea.

After figuring out a general concept based on brainstorming powers, I compiled some images into a mood board to visualise features of certain characters I want to apply to my character or adapt to her concept such as a primarily light colour palette to reflect her powers, rainbow accents to represent the refractions of rainbow her light manipulation causes, the star motif throughout her suit, and the popstar/idol performer I intend to make her outside of superhero business.

Top Left: Marvel Rivals screenshots.

Top Middle: ActuallyRea. (2023). x.com. [online] Available at: https://x.com/ActuallyRea/status/1682823793046171648 [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].

Top Right: Starlight from The Boys, created by Eric Kripke, photographer unknown.

Bottom Left: ActuallyRea. (2021). x.com. [online] Available at: https://x.com/ActuallyRea/status/1357764886550503431/photo/1 [Accessed 10 Feb. 2025].

Bottom Middle: Art by John Romita Jr.

Bottom Right: Art by Artgerm.

Week 21

Developing the Concept:

With my general mood board complete, I wanted to start refining the idea of my character before I put pen to paper. I started with filling out a set of queries on my character to understand facets of her life, personality and motivations. Following this, I aimed to create the rest of my mood boards so I could start on silhouettes by session's end.

Character Premise:

Name: Silver Lining, Lucille LeBeau.

Age: 22

Ethnicity: French

Appearance: Silver Lining is albino, meaning she is rather pale and her hair is pigmented platinum blonde, even her eyelashes which she uses as a distinct visual allure to capture attention, accentuating her lashes with white mascara. Her hair is long and wavy, styling it each day through straightening, braiding, tying up, etc. to maintain focus on her. She uses lots of blush to bring vibrance back to her pale cheeks.

Clothing: For casual dress, she engages in elegant, mature-wear with classical blazers and dresses, heels and earrings. For popstar looks, she wears jumpsuits with notable accessories such as matching hats and long boots, holographic and glittery in nature.

Personality: Frivolous and materialistic, enjoys attention and the spotlight, natural gravitation towards performing for an audience, relishes in splendor and praise. Enjoys the superhero role for the idolization and fame. The small nature of her hometown meant a lack of self expression for their clothing shops sold practicality over personality, leading to her dramatic identity and bold nature in Paris.

Occupation: Aside from the superhero job, she is a popstar musician, much preferring the performative side. She doesn't write her own songs but has a team that composes her songs - her focus is on the opulent stage outfits and dramatic makeup, camera flashes and cheers from the pit.

Environment: “Paris, Ville Lumière”. She's situated in a high end apartment in the city of lights, an expensively fitting location for a girl with materialistic desires and fame.

Economic Status/Class: Reigned from a small working class village in the French countryside but moved to start a music career which granted her fame and therefore an abundance of money. She'd read the magazines in corner shops detailing on the hottest star of the year, inspiring her to become one.

Era: Early 2000s, in the transition from retro disco music to modern electropop

Group or Solo: In her popstar occupation, she's a soloist, so I believe she's very independent and does hero work alone. She can cooperate with a team of heroes to accomplish a mission but she causes mishaps by pushing teammates aside for the paparazzi, losing focus on the task at hand to fix her hair and makeup, posing instead of scouting.

Beliefs: Given her story of rising from mediocrity and a lack of material possession or self expression, she has the agenda of staying true to yourself, even if that means half of your room is piled up with clothes.

If given an Olympic Sport: Rhythmic Gymnastics or Figure Skating. Silver Lining would definitely gravitate towards performative sports that include a routine with dance moves and outfits lined with rhinestones and flowing fabric.

Physical Build: Given her energetic onstage choreography, she is rather toned; she is generally slim and tall, accentuated by her heels, engaging in weekly Pilates to achieve a slim, graceful build with subtle muscle too.

For the clothing, I started by researching popstars throughout the years starting with Sabrina Carpenter for her feminine glitter-clad dresses, which I want to incorporate in my design as a tertiary detail. Glitter would take lots of time to render as a primary material, so scaling it down to minor features would save me time. I also compiled images of Agnetha of ABBA for her retro jumpsuits featuring skin tight material including silk/satin and general cloth complemented with ruffles and draped fabric. ABBA was prominent in the late 70s - early 80s so incorporating part of these retro jumpsuit designs can represent Silver Lining's placement in the transition from 1900s retropop to 2000s contemporary music, appreciating all eras of pop music in her clothing. I looked at a variety of kpop idols' stage outfits for their strong feminine designs, featuring clothes referencing 80s disco with their modern adaptations of jumpsuits akin to ABBA, princess-esque dresses with elegant elements like ruffles and ribbons resembling japanese idol fashion with their bright, youthful vibe. Finally, I included some video game examples such as Serenade from Fortnite for her warping metal designs that could be adapted to armor, transitioning to her chrome holographic boots. I also included Ahri from League of Legends with her K/DA outfits as they reference the popstar performer concept adapted for a game with less practical wear, since this wasn't a real-life outfit that would be prone to wardrobe malfunctions.

I included artwork of Dazzler from Marvel for her large, flashy hair with slight curls resembling 80s popstar hair. Her incredible hair length shows how I have less limitations as it's a game concept, rather than a real life design. I included hair styles akin to the 80s shown in real life too, to understand how the waves overlap and extend from the crown, along with the fringe. Next to that is an image of Lady Gaga early into her career in the 2000s with platinum blonde hair, straightened with a bow tied from her hair; this was likely an accessory added on rather than her actual hair, but seeing the direction of the strands helps me understand how it is wrapped up. I found a cosplayer's image of their Sailor Moon interpretation and found the hair very impressive and a good reference for drawing complex hairstyles as the fringe is separated from the further back head of hair which contributes to the bun, seen with its twisting towards the buns, which have the strands exiting out the back. The image underneath showed how I can used hairclips as an accessory too.

Week 22

Silhouettes:

Beginning the silhouettes, I searched for dancer references to capture actors in loose motion, feeling free and outgoing like Silver Lining. I started by drawing a vertical line to depict the height of the silhouette, followed by loosely capturing the gesture and refining it by filling in each body part.

The first image shows my silhouette very close to the reference, but I wanted to adjust the anatomy to fit my character; I slimmed down the waist and legs since I want a wide stance to show confidence, depicted well with slim, toned legs. This silhouette was ready for details at this point.

Once I had a solid base to use, I added clothes and shapes in a simple form so I'm considering the clothing design as basic as possible, not being held back by small details that won't affect the silhouette. I repeated this process of drawing a body and applying simple design features with differing tones, adding detail to them after I finished them all.

My initial struggle was evident with silhouette A, feeling very uninspired and bland. I was unsure of how to apply interesting design features that'd affect the silhouette, shown by the crop top and skirt which suggests nothing about her character. I added some star-like shapes to the shirt's collar, boots, and gloves to align with the sharpness of the hairstyle, indicating the time placement of the early 2000s as this slicked back, spiky bun was popular in that era.

I was getting looser with B, with a more unique outfit and hairstyle. The flowy nature of the long ponytail supports the star theme as it feels like it's in space. The outfit is fun, but feels more like a magician than a musical performer - her comet-like tailcoat was the best feature.

I really got into the groove of the third design, C, attempting a jumpsuit design akin to the ABBA outfits on my mood board with shapes resembling a star. For the extravagant popstar vibe, I designed a unique hairstyle with buns that flare out into loops of hair that use negative space to form a star shape. I also wanted the shoulder pads to create a star shape too, with very sharp and confident connotations using triangular shape language.

D and E were more magical girl/j-pop idol inspired to communicate the bright, cheery nature these light powers exude. This ties into the idea of a young, positive and bubbly popstar who aims to inspire and create a silver lining for those in her audience and fans around the world.

F definitely feels the most original, taking the hip-hop route with practical clothes such as a cropped hoodie and shorts with belt straps (for utility?). A large star-shaped zipper is featured, although I'd like it to be the star shape in itself, rather than a string with the star at the end to emphasise the shape within the design. I implemented some asymmetry with a plastic sleeve and leg warmer, along with spandex on the opposing limbs.

G certainly irked me because it's such a good silhouette, and my tutors agreed, but it just isn't where I want to take Silver Lining at all. Grrrr.

H is another favourite, featuring more asymmetry in a mature design with lots of revealing cut-outs. I wanted to maintain the sharp shape language that exudes confidence, almost intimidation from her self-assured nature, so I implemented a shoulder pad and collar that strengthened her shoulder's shape, followed by shorts that connect to leg warmers that make trousers with a cut-out to resemble a diamond star shape with four extruding shapes. This was followed up by another 4-pronged star cut-out on her belly to suggest that confident nature and perhaps imply her torso to be the origin of her powers, with two exposed areas in the chest and stomach (naval beams??). Also a cool slick-back hair design with unruly strands, perhaps of different colours, to resemble shooting stars or comets, falling down to her face to draw eyes towards it.

I follows the more traditional spandex hero suit, skin-tight and defining. This one held strength most in its tertiary design with the rhinestones which resemble a starry sky, rather than a strong silhouette in the body. I compensated for the lack of interesting shape in the suit with a strong hairdo, a fluffy perm with a comet-like headset which feels very space-like.

F is just an embodiment of my brain being drained of ideas. With this done, my tutor suggested to mix C, F, H and I as these were the strongest silhouettes and to keep in mind that the skin tone will be light, and that affects the outfit's tone.

Blog Task 2: Planes of the Face

Within this blog task, we're asked to break a face down structurally into its planes to analyse its structure, depth and distribution in scale for each main landmark, identifying these areas too. I chose Cate Blanchett as my point of reference, based on her light complexion with sharp, confident features that align with my character's personal traits.

Photo Credit: Gerhard Kassner

For Cate, I observed a longer facial build which demonstrated the cheekbones featuring prominently; they do not hold horizontal emphasis but rather sharpen her face from their dimension on the cheeks, therefore slimming her overall head shape and elongating it. This is complemented by her sharp jaw, leading down to a narrow chin which further alleviates this sharp complexion, perfectly narrating the self-assured, almost intimidating aura I aim to communicate solely through appearance in looks. Her chin follows this triangular shape which leans into shape language - rather than portraying danger, she alludes great confidence and dominance. I believe I should've pushed the eyelid fat further down to narrow the eyes horizontally further as this would take away from the naïve, doe-like nature of the round eyes and grasp cohesion with the overall sharp, slick attitude presented. The forehead is relatively broad and wide, following the face's contour, exponentially widening from the chin up to fit that triangular motif as it meets the hairline.

In creating this artwork, I followed a 3D model of an "asaro head", a concept created by the artist John Asaro, in which the head is broken down into planes. I primarily used muted greys, within the sepia tone range, adding hue shift to understand how shadows affect the colour's warmth, which is demonstrated by how I cranked up the saturation of the leftmost head and the range of yellow to blue is shown. I referenced the Asaro model frequently but found myself easily creating the planes just guiding the pen along Cate's photo as I was grasping the idea of where these areas lie on the face, with anatomical variation in contrast to the neutral, male model.

This task was a great success as I feel confident in the primitive structure of the face in geometric framing, this will allow me to confidently build an original face with accuracy, knowing the proportions first and now the depth, dimension, and face distribution between the major landmarks.

Blog Task 3: Body Landmarks and Character Anatomy Analysis

This blog task asks us to find a 3/4 turnaround (front and back) of a character, identify and draw the main landmarks on the body, and analyse the anatomical elements of the character that have been emphasised to push a narrative of the character's purpose/personality visually. I chose a lean, feminine character from Overwatch to match my character structurally while observing how this frame is adapted to fit a brighter personality.

Art credit: Daryl Tan

I forgot to mention how her slim frame accounts for her agile nature as a high-mobility hero!! Pretend it's on the slide. This blog task has me feeling confident about drawing such a graceful figure as I've taken the time to mark the main landmarks of the body and connect them, understanding the anatomy of this kind of frame. I want to increase my character's height to emphasise her intimidation factor as such an iridescent figure, feeling untouchable, but maintain this slim figure. Looking into the first slide's presentation with prop angles, removing them, and extra details such as facial close-ups and background VFX shows how I can boost my presentation while advocating my character's powers/abilities and gear.

Week 23

Refining the Silhouette & Iterating Further:

With the silhouette stage complete and agreeing with my tutor which designs to extract elements from to create the optimal design for my character, I began refining the silhouette. At this point, I revamped my concept as I felt a light-based popstar hero has been done before (Dazzler..) - that's not to stop me from doing the same, but the concept of light coinciding with villainy is super interesting.

For the new concept, her backstory goes as follows. An aspiring popstar musician with dreams of an adoring audience. In her late teens she developed light-based powers that, in a freak accident, blinded her and caused burns around her eyes from the stress of the light's intensity. The disfigurement and loss of vision halted her performer activities, leading to a newfound thirst for glory that she sought through the spectacle of villainy.

Here, I had the rough turnaround of my silhouettes mashed into a refined design, with features mostly taken from silhouette H. I considered the back's design, given that a player will see the back of a character most of the time so you want it to be communicative of their personality and interesting fashion-wise. Since the top is open ended at the back, I added straps holding it together that crossover to form a star. In cleaning up this sketch, I removed the shoulder pad for an asymmetrical, exaggerated collar with spikes resembling stars. I also changed the trousers to a less complex design; it probably could've worked, but 3D modelling it would probably be a challenge - I opted for traditional leg warmers that attach to the upper trousers.

Experimenting with colour focusing on themes adjacent to Silver Lining such as stars, therefore the sun, and sunset colour palettes. I ended up choosing the dual toned iteration on the far right, using yellow to resemble stars and splendour, purple as its complementary colour that represents the night sky, implying the darkness cast over this character in her transformation into a villain.

Week 24

Peer Assessment - Crit Feedback:

Our task for this session was to sit with a peer and assess each other's work using a questionnaire detailing on character, value, and form. This will challenge the strength of our characters and their communicated attributes in the outfit, personality, and occupation, helping us to identify weak points in the design and rectify them.

Character:

Can you identify the character?

Yes - my peer was immediately reminded of Luna Snow from Marvel Rivals, demonstrating the popstar theme.

What's their identity?

A glamorous popstar with a sinister twist.

Personality type?

Clearly vain and superficial with the emphasis on presentation and beauty.

Where are they from?

My peer could identify their European heritage, but not that they were specifically French. Their light complexion communicated their location in the Northern hemisphere, but there are no specific indicators of their French descent.

What are they wearing and why?

Popstar attire with performer elements, lots of jewelry to suggest emphasis on materialistic value.

What is their role in the narrative?

Clearly a popstar turned malevolent, a superficial villain fixated on presentation based on focus on beauty in outfit, flattering curves. Popstar fallen from grace indicates their seeking of lost glory.

Form:

Can you identify shape language?

Definitely - my peer immediately noticed the sharpness of the clothing and accessories, followed by the secondary shape language of soft curves, holding less focus in the shapes' hierarchy as to not take away from the threatening nature of the triangles, but suggesting femininity in the curvature which shows allure and difficulty in antagonising her for her conventional beauty in what she shows (hiding scars with sunglasses).

What are the dominant shapes?

My peer spotted stars and diamonds as the dominant shapes, communicating her light powers and materialistic personality. Next was the triangles as discussed in the shape language query to enhance the threatening aura.

Are there any repeated shapes?

Star motif to align with light powers.

What is the silhouette like?

Sharp and threatening, but my peer specifically stated their reminiscence of Luna Snow observing it, again strengthening the popstar theme.

Is there a focal point and flow?

I was beaming when my peer said the collar and sunglasses seemed like the focal point, as viewers are naturally drawn to the face so the sunglasses enhance this; the collar is what I wanted to make the focal point of the outfit, possessing the sharp shape language and star motif while adding asymmetry which guides the viewer's eyes throughout the design, maintaining interest, rather than losing it to a flat and symmetrical design. The asymmetry shows chaos and erraticism.

Value:

Are the values clearly laid out?

Yes - my peer mentioned the distinction between each element of the design with a range of about 4 tones. The values are chunked for the flat, practical purpose of the iteration process.

Lighting, rendering, and 3D form are not yet considered as I'm finalising the design first.

How do the materials read?

My peer mentioned cloth which is certainly a point. However I plan to have a mix of materials within the design so I plan to create a material callout page to envision the textures better once I render.

What is the perspective like?

Flat for the functional purpose of laying out the design.

Could you model this? Is there enough information?

At this point, there is flat colour and general detail for the outfit and accessories, however it lacks material and tertiary detail such as seams and pattern.

With this feedback received, my main target is to finalise my idea generation so I can leave the design stage and begin rendering seeing as most of my character's concepts are communicated well.

I used my cast actor and blog work on planar with understanding her anatomy already, creating a stylised portrait of Cate Blanchett to use as head for my character's hair iterations. As a pompous fallen popstar seeking attention, she will likely have an exaggerated hairdo.

Greyscale render to attain value.

Overlay of colour applied and exploration into scar design.

Tutor's feedback being to lower the brow, darken the radix to show its depth and block out colour for the scar to show healed tissue previously damaged, darkening areas like the underside of the nose and lips.

After extra rendering, adding lashes, brows and lipstick for a complete bust to use for iteration in hair, scars and face accessories.

Here, I experimented with a few different feminine hairstyles such as a retro 80's perm in the top left, a slicked-back and put together hairdo suggesting intimidation, and hyper-feminine hairdos such as the giant bow akin to Lady Gaga's campy extraordinaire. The iteration I liked most was the top right, which I iterated on further by adding coloured streaks, meaning her hair colour won't be monotone. With this, my design stage was complete and I could begin creating the final product.

Week 25

Beginning the Turnaround:

I started with a gestural stickman to get a pose down quickly, with the hand up to show the arm that would otherwise be hidden in the 3/4 view.

I marked the main landmarks of the body and drew the whole body before adding clothes to ensure correct anatomy; I also checked the heads were a good count, coming to 7 and 1/2 which works as it's taller than average for a woman, so intimidating but still accurate.

Next, I marked on the details of the outfit.

Face and jewellery.

I drew lineart over the sketch to help me follow a clean line when blocking in values.

Here, the values are blocked in on a layer per component, and I started rendering the skin.

At this point, my tutor pointed out the large eye which distorts the rest of the face too - he redrew it with a strong 3/4 rotation in mind so I wasn't on the fence between two angles. He also made the point that the face is slightly turned down so the nose wouldn't be as upturned and the jaw would project higher than the mouth because of the vertical rotation.

With this feedback in mind, I began re-rendering with a better understanding of the approach.

I started by blocking in the core shadows of the face like the concave eyelids, the cheek, and the nose. Following this, I went in with a slightly darker value to add depth to the face and detail like the lips, eyebrows and eyelids.

Week 26

Continuing to Render:

I followed the same process as the face for the shirt by beginning the render with blocking in core shadows.

I then blended out where the edges are softer and the shadows transition smoother, along with building tone around the side of the ribcage to show that the light is facing her front, while she's at the 3/4 angle.

Finally, I added a little tertiary detail with a sun-like seam along the edge of the shirt, while also adding highlights and hints of where her muscle tone shows in her abdomen.

For the trousers, I tried to shade a little softer when adding core shadows since the local value of them is already relatively dark. I started by softly shading the edges of the legs, followed by above the trouser's flare to show how they extend outwards. I also added a highlight to show their spandex nature.

In making the latex sleeve, I made sure to have the folds going in the right direction and add slight bounce light on the edge of the shadow since the local value is dark, and the environment is not.

For the hair, I added dark shadows where the underneath lies and the outline of the hair so it feels volumetric.

Next, I added slight highlights followed by smaller brush strokes to achieve that strand effect of stray hairs.

Rendering smaller areas like the shoes, jewellery and collar, the front view was complete in greyscale. I followed it up by duplicating the pose and flipping it around, adjusting the legs so they oppose the front view's. With this complete, I was ready to colour.

Week 27

Finalising:

I used a new layer clipped to each rendered piece on the blend mode "Colour" to apply colour taken from the iteration stage; the skin couldn’t be monotone in colour unless I wanted a zombie, so I added an "Overlay" layer and used a warm orange to bring life to the skin and show there's blood underneath.

With the colour added, I drew the front and side profile of Silver Lining's face and added some small touches to the whole page such as a quick logo which is also found on her large zipper, communicating her self-absorbance and need to be idolised, creating an emblematic persona to achieve those goals.

Dev Log Evaluation:

Digital has been a ride this block, but I've really enjoyed it. Character creation is definitely one of my preferences so I had fun exploring design ideas and iterating on fashion, communicating personality through outfits, colours, and shape language. I think my design is effective but I definitely still have desires for her that I wish I could've implemented.

The outfit itself is great and hopefully not too ambitious for 3D next block. I believe I succeeded in my rendering, which is an achievement since I always feared I couldn't create a 3D-looking and convincing character digitally. I did well in communicating the spandex materials and showing the toned muscle in the shirt, however some of my design components like the shoes were neglected so the material for that is vague. I believe my colours could've used some further refining and I would've liked to implement a third lighter colour in the mixed rather than the dual-tone that may cause miscommunication in her power. The star iconography and yellow colours could give the impression of electricity manipulation over light, so I may redo the colour palette and add some whites or light blue to the mix to suggest the iridescence of light, while maintaining that core purple which promotes the corrupted nature of Silver Lining - purple dye was a rare commodity years ago so it was exclusive to monarchs and upper classes, reflecting the idea of her thirst for power and influence to compensate for her halted music career.

My worst gripe is that I didn't get time to include her awesome star-shaped sunglasses; these were genuinely the coolest part of the outfit and her most recognisable feature. I think I've improved in time management this block, keeping up with the blog and other subjects but I still haven't completed this work to my standard. I think I need to be brave and just go for the rendering rather than holding off as long as possible to consider every little detail. I need to remember that it's okay to start over, it's for the sake of a better outcome.

Regardless, this block was a treat and I'd love to do something similar again - it's becoming very apparent I much prefer people or animals to buildings and environments. I look forward to continuing and improving constantly.

Little Lining

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